REVA practices wing-to-wing with Air National Guard

REVA and Air National Guard team members complete the exercise. Credit: REVA

US-based fixed-wing medevac provider REVA Air Ambulance last week participated in Empire Strike, a two-day medical evacuation training exercise with the Air National Guard.

Taking place at Schenectady County Airport, REVA’s northeast base, the crews practised wing to wing transfers, taking REVA’s state-of-the-art patient simulator from the Air National Guard’s C-130 personnel carrier to the service’s Learjet 35A.

According to REVA, the exercise resulted from a year-long design effort by Air National Guard Captain Stephen Hallenbeck, the lead exercise planner of the 139th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron of the 109th Airlift Wing in New York. Hallenbeck enthused that the co-operative exercise was a great success, and highlighted the interaction between both organisations: “It was a unique and invaluable opportunity to build real-time, real-world experiences and a more definitive plan for responding to actual natural disasters.”

Usually the Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron will turn over critical care patients straight to a hospital, but as REVA’s safety management system manager Calvin Hargaray explains, this training will be invaluable if a mass casualty situation ever arises: “This experience allowed us to see what we may and may not do in conjunction with the military in response to a natural disaster. Overall, the whole experience promoted our growing safety culture and opened our eyes as to what to expect.”